• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard fails to enter Steam top 100 sellers, one month before release

Ozriel

M$FT
Hate tourist lol, when I was playing Dragon Age you didnt know what a mousepad was. I dont care about gay romances since I dont need to engage with them, but I cant avoid black and asian elves when they are members of the party. What straight romance option do you even have as a male, that semi-fat midget Harding ? Miss me with that gaslighting shit, this is one of the wokest rpgs ever made.

So the dealbreaker for you is black and asian elves? That's the thing that compromises this RPG in your eyes?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Preordering digital games is idiotic. Only preorder if it's physical and a Collector's Edition with goodies.
Exactly.

Or the old disc days where E3 would happen and every main store would offer buy 2 get 1 free, or 30% off. That's a deal. I did that all the time with COD, NHL, and I'd pick a third game. As you said, collectors bonus too if it's that importan.

But for anyone pre-ordering the standard game at normal price, why?

It's not like digital downloads run out. And it's doubtful any disc copies will run out too. For probably 20 years, you got online sites doing their reviews day one, and since streaming got on the train, streamers will post their impressions too day one. Game studios will also either release a day one patch, or often tell gamers a patch is coming soon. By the end of the day, Metacritic will probably have 30 reviews to read.

So add it up and just wait.

If it means you got to do all this after dinner and it looks like a good game and download the game overnight so you play the next day who cares. Cant wait 24 hours? Crazy.

The craziest pre-orders are people doing it for a game that doesnt even have a release date. I remember the game Below being shown and Best Buy and Future Shop putting the game up for pre-order with date TBD. The game didnt come out for 5 years. There must had been some guys who pre-ordered it and waited half a decade for it. it was so long they probably forgot about it. lol
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member
I hear ya. Bioware did leverage IGN for their latest marketing preview, but even that has been met with a mixed reception. I don't think there's honest to goodness enthusiasm across the internet that generates buzz around the title. It's kinda just there.

lXHI1rP.png

Don't think I'm breaking any ground here, but considering how much of the game they've showed off, and it's still being met with such mixed reception, I'd say the aesthetics of the game is their biggest fuck up. It's just a two hit combo of looking nothing like Dragon Age, and also looking like the safest, most modern Disney-like bullshit they could've conjured. The presentation, design and tone is just wrong.

Might be a hot take, but I think more people would've been willing to look past the DEI elements of the game, if it had the same grimdark fantasy aesthetics of DA Origins.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Only reason and it's primarily a bad reason is preordering for 72 hours early access. Which of course if they are offering early access and you don't buy it you get late access to the game. But this only matters if you want to be first to play the game...except you aren't ever going to be first because reviewers and streamers get copies of the game and have content ready far in advance. It's why you see on day one of release videos spoiling everything within one day of game releases which kills self-discovery.
 

JayK47

Member
Some of these metrics are getting out of hand. A game apparently needs a shit ton of preorders, and the second the game comes out, you need to drop everything and play it. Need to get those preorder and concurrent numbers up. These are rookie numbers.

I am not that excited about this game. They have not shown me a single thing that makes me care about it. Will I eventually get it? Maybe. I will wait for reviews and hot takes on GAF. I will then wait for patches, DLC and a sale to pick up up depending on said reviews and hot takes. I have so many other good games to play, and there is a lot of doubt around this game.
 

YuLY

Gold Member
So the dealbreaker for you is black and asian elves? That's the thing that compromises this RPG in your eyes?
One of the most important things in RPGs for me, are party characters or people you most often interact with. Otherwise I would play Action RPGs like Diablo, but I want people that I like to interact with in my RPGs. One of the main things that saved Mass Effect 2 in the eyes of RPG enjoyers was the team and their loyalty missions, otherwise game would have been a huge downgrade from the first, just with a little bit better combat.
If I dont care about the party in Veilguard, then what the hell do I care about in that game? the mobile-like UI? romancing a fat female dwarf ? if i want to play RPGs for combat there are many korean mmos with much better combat than bioware could ever dream of making, but thats not what I focus on when I look at an rpg.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I'll give my score here, 82 at best. There is just no hype anything around this game. Peak DA were Origins and 2.
I'll take a guess based on historical scores and I what I see with this game.

MC scores

DA 1 86
DA 2 79
DA:I 85

I'll guess Veilguard gets 75. I think it'll be the worst one. I think many critics wont like the change to hack and slash gameplay and bubbly mobile graphics.
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member
One of the most important things in RPGs for me, are party characters or people you most often interact with. Otherwise I would play Action RPGs like Diablo, but I want people that I like to interact with in my RPGs. One of the main things that saved Mass Effect 2 in the eyes of RPG enjoyers was the team and their loyalty missions, otherwise game would have been a huge downgrade from the first, just with a little bit better combat.
If I dont care about the party in Veilguard, then what the hell do I care about in that game? the mobile-like UI? romancing a fat female dwarf ? if i want to play RPGs for combat there are many korean mmos with much better combat than bioware could ever dream of making, but thats not what I focus on when I look at an rpg.

I kinda agree, though not for the specific reasons you mention. I could give a fuck about the skin color of any of my party members. I just want them to look cool, hot, or badass. Anyone one of those three at least. The Veilguard might actually beat out Andromeda for having the lamest looking party members in a Bioware game. The only one I like is Lace Harding, who isn't fat btw. There's a difference between fat and thick, and she's a dwarf. If she wasn't thick she's just be a halfling at that point.

The Necromancer guy might be cool? But other that I'm not sold on the rest.

I'll take a guess based on historical scores and I what I see with this game.

MC scores

DA 1 86
DA 2 79
DA:I 85

I'll guess Veilguard gets 75. I think it'll be the worst one. I think many critics wont like the change to hack and slash gameplay and bubbly mobile graphics.

DA: Origins having an 86 is one of those MC scores that has not aged well. That game is widely considered one of the best Western RPGs ever made.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
I just want them to look cool, hot, or badass.
This. And not badass in a cringe girl boss way either. We can sniff out the cringe self inserts from purple hair hacks.

DA: Origins having an 86 is one of those MC scores that has not aged well. That game is widely considered one of the best Western RPGs ever made.
The launch of DA: Origins was so hype back in 2009. Everyone on Steam was playing it. We thought we'd go pure incline after that solid foundation and we ended up driving to shit mountain. :(
 
Last edited:

YuLY

Gold Member
I kinda agree, though not for the specific reasons you mention. I could give a fuck about the skin color of any of my party members. I just want them to look cool, hot, or badass.
I dont have a problem with black and asian elves due to the fact that they arent white, it is because it feels like they "modern day-ed" the entire race of elves. I honestly always saw the elves as a proud aristocratic, long lived pure race, it had nothing to do with them being white, they just looked like that cause elves come from european mythologies/folklore. And if you make them black and asian it is like....oh...so they are just humans but with pointy ears? it kinda ruins the entire idea and the immersion, and for what...so they can push their diversity agenda.

It is like that thing with some leftists saying we needed to change how orcs look and feel in D&D cause they felt like pushing down on Black People. And everyone who is sane and not antifa was like, BRO WAT, like who the fuck even thought they were supposed to be like black people, those people dont even realize they are the racists.
 
Last edited:
I'll take a guess based on historical scores and I what I see with this game.

MC scores

DA 1 86
DA 2 79
DA:I 85

I'll guess Veilguard gets 75. I think it'll be the worst one. I think many critics wont like the change to hack and slash gameplay and bubbly mobile graphics.
I'd like to say it'll be lower than what I predicted but I got to remember how the industry in biased so I bumped the score a bit based on what places like Kotaku and whatnot will rave about the game. Objectively, I think it'll be a 77-78 though.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I don't have an issue with Black/Asian/Bald/Gay Elves as long as the entirety of their character isn't just they are a Black/Asian/Bald/Gay Elf. Zevran and Leiliana are both beloved characters and their sexual orientations even in concept phases were nothing more then a character trait. The characters really shined with their development and their backstories.

Nothing is really going to top the Dwarf Noble Origin story though. THAT was how you did political intrigue and how underhanded Dwarf politics could become.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Wanting the game to fail because "hurr durr woke" just makes you a fucking moron. You probably didn't even care about Dragon Age to begin with and just found another target for your self-righteous circlejerk.

Unfortunately, everything has to be alt-right or alt-left, nobody can think using their own brain without following buzzwords & political agendas...
 

Big Baller

Al Pachinko, Konami President
The game industry seem to be following a random walk theory. I dont know why games like BG3 succeed but games like this fail.

BG3 clearly had woke element but it was extremely popular even in places like Saudi Arabia where Ive read gamers praising the game. Woke is certainly not the reason.

So, I wonder what is driving games to succeed and fail today.

Its the color purple
 

Kacho

Gold Member
Its pretty clear this woke shit is on its way out. It has run its course. We went from people unironically calling themselves woke in their social media profiles, then those same people tried deflecting criticism by asking what woke means, now people are coping by proclaiming anti-woke is just as bad as woke. What a ride.
 

Bombolone

Gold Member
Its pretty clear this woke shit is on its way out. It has run its course. We went from people unironically calling themselves woke in their social media profiles, then those same people tried deflecting criticism by asking what woke means, now people are coping by proclaiming anti-woke is just as bad as woke. What a ride.
Feigned ignorance is always hilarious to see.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
This is exactly why my Dragon Age hype was deflated as soon i saw gameplay footage. The art direction of the game make it look like a mod for World of Warcraft filled with colorfull neon effects.
The cast of companion characters also makes me not really interested in knowing anyone of them. As a fan of Dragon Age games i might eventually get it, but will wait for a very big discount on this one.
Wait a year itll be on ea play.

With that said, not even a free download on ea play for me.
 
Its pretty clear this woke shit is on its way out. It has run its course. We went from people unironically calling themselves woke in their social media profiles, then those same people tried deflecting criticism by asking what woke means, now people are coping by proclaiming anti-woke is just as bad as woke. What a ride.
nailed. that's precisely the moment when you know that they've hit a wall...
 

Dorago

Member
The last game came out 10 years ago.

The most recent BioWare game was one of the biggest flops in history.

Their game before that is still an internet meme and is considered to have destroyed the series.

Nobody plays the other Dragon Age games nor has there been any retrospectives of the series.
 

Doom85

Member
It is like that thing with some leftists saying we needed to change how orcs look and feel in D&D cause they felt like pushing down on Black People. And everyone who is sane and not antifa was like, BRO WAT, like who the fuck even thought they were supposed to be like black people, those people dont even realize they are the racists.

Yeah, orcs have never been used to promote racist viewpoints. Where did this nonsense even rise fro-


Oh My God Reaction GIF


Well, you know, I mean, sure there are a lot of questionable similarities, but it’s not like the book specifically mentions a real world race or ethnicit-

“Hutai is a middle-aged hobgoblin with Asian features.”
“hobgoblin with Asian features”
“Asian features”

If You Say So Wow GIF by Barstool Sports


Err, well, certainly they wouldn’t slightly alter one of the most well known racist slogans ever to apply to orcs-

“A Good Orc is a Dead Orc.”

Jimmy Fallon What GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon


Now que the goalpost moving from some people who were asking, “when have orcs ever been used to display racial stereotypes?” to, “…..name two times orcs ever been used to display racial stereotypes!” Fuck that weak diversion. The argument was that people who want orcs to have more varied morality and such are “the real racists” for “seeing orcs as a real race”. Bruh, sorry I don’t live in an actual fantasy world where there are zero racist nerds and we apparently live in this beautiful utopia. Now, obviously I would say the vast majority of the older DnD writers and players were not promoting racist viewpoints but you’d have to be delusional as hell to not believe a select few were. So no, people nowadays are not “the real racists” for believing that certain people in the past used fantasy races as a subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) way to promote real life racism. It’s called metaphors for fucks sake.

If you still think orcs’ morality shouldn’t be altered but rather we should be more alert for those who use them to promote racist metaphors, fair enough, but calling people “the real racists” for acknowledging there are those who use orcs and such to promote racist metaphors is ridiculous.
 

Raven117

Member
And another thing…. Regardless of any agenda or whatever…. I have zero interest in slogging through a mediocre game. I swear, too many games now are very average but worse… complete slogs to play. I swear I’ve been wading through mediocre shit for over a year now.

So much so… I’m taking a break from gaming.
 

PeteBull

Member
Its pretty clear this woke shit is on its way out. It has run its course. We went from people unironically calling themselves woke in their social media profiles, then those same people tried deflecting criticism by asking what woke means, now people are coping by proclaiming anti-woke is just as bad as woke. What a ride.
Anti woke means sane, normal, traditional, as it should be, aka no clown world.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Its pretty clear this woke shit is on its way out. It has run its course. We went from people unironically calling themselves woke in their social media profiles, then those same people tried deflecting criticism by asking what woke means, now people are coping by proclaiming anti-woke is just as bad as woke. What a ride.
I agree the pendulum is swinging, but in gaming it'll take a while IMO.

- Games already in dev for years
- Stubborn employees who wont change unless they are fired
- Some gaffer mention some of this shit is due to being linked to funding payouts.... put in some diversity stuff to hit a benchmark and get more funding

So it wont turn on a dime. But you never know. Maybe in 2-3 years gaming will be more like the 360 days.

However, things can change. Harley Davidson and a supply parts retailer publicly apologized to customers and stated they are revoking DEI stuff. Pretty ballsy. And came from customer complaints and social media pressure. So it can happen. But end of the day you need employees and bosses at the studio to act on it. Or if they way just keep doing the games how they want it. Up to them.
 
Last edited:

simpatico

Member
Why is everyone hoping everything fails these days?

I don't get why everyone wants everything to fail except the same Ninty trash we've been getting for about 40 years now.

Cancel culture is morphing into celebrating failure culture
We want to make sure publishers get the right feedback. I haven’t seen anyone call for anything resembling a decent game failing. EA deserves to lose millions on this project. Otherwise they’ll never learn
 

stn

Member
I still have my pre-order up, but this is not surprising. A lot of the "selling" points being advertised lately related to irrelevant stuff like sex, nudity, and other useless things. So I'm concerned that this is all a substitute for the bad story. Still, the combat appears fine so I am hoping that my skepticism is misplaced. I love Origins, and DA 2, so I would hate to see this franchise die this way.
 

DrDryRub

Banned
So strange reading some of these comments about characters, character creations, wokeness ,dei and everything else. If you need video games to justify your manliness then you have a problem. As for gender neutral characters and such I guess you haven't played an MMO in the last 30 years. Half the dudes out here rocking fishnets, pink hair, and that are dry jumping each other (these are manly men btw) hell, go for a walk in any VR chat room or VR game.

Wokeness and dei aren't the problems, they've been around forever! Poor writing and game development are.
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
Why is everyone hoping everything fails these days?

I don't get why everyone wants everything to fail except the same Ninty trash we've been getting for about 40 years now.

Cancel culture is morphing into celebrating failure culture

Awful people making awful games is not something I am supporting. And we're not calling for bans or cancellations, just happy to see nature set its course.
 
Last edited:

Pilsner1977

Neo Member
This game is going to be Meh which is too bad considering how good origins was. Too bad Bioware didn't see the success of BG3 and go more that route instead of trying to make a game for "everyone" to try to get more sales. Kind of ironic because if they just would have stuck to making it a CRPG instead of an action game it would have sold way way more. This is why suits should not be in charge of the direction of video games.
 
I say as someone who was a fan of the series..... the best and most charitable thing I can say is DA:V looks like big budget, design by corporate committee AAA slop shit. And the more I see, the more it just looks like all of the creative talent long moved on from the studio.

I am not touching this.
 
Last edited:

Nydius

Member
This is why I am refusing to get my hopes up that we'll ever actually see the supposed next Mass Effect game. If (perhaps when) this flops, it will be the third high profile, very expensive, AAA flop in a row by BioWare. If that happens, I doubt the studio will survive, especially given the current state of the industry.

Besides, after seeing the gameplay and design of Veilguard, which looks nothing like the Dragon Age of old, I have zero faith in anyone at BioWare to recapture the magic of their former staple franchises like ME or DA.

A shame, really.
 

MangalaX

Neo Member
I think if you liked Inquisition like me, you're gonna like this one. What people really want is Baldur's Age 3: the Veilguardians lol
 
This is why I am refusing to get my hopes up that we'll ever actually see the supposed next Mass Effect game. If (perhaps when) this flops, it will be the third high profile, very expensive, AAA flop in a row by BioWare. If that happens, I doubt the studio will survive, especially given the current state of the industry.

Besides, after seeing the gameplay and design of Veilguard, which looks nothing like the Dragon Age of old, I have zero faith in anyone at BioWare to recapture the magic of their former staple franchises like ME or DA.

A shame, really.
yep. what's weird is, i have even less than zero faith in anyone at bioware being capable of creating something new & interesting. we live in the age of tweaking. these folx now over-seeing so much of the gaming industry don't create, they simply tweak/'re-imagine' someone else's creation. the first instance of this that really stood out for me was tomb raider 2013. lara croft, but in name only. they wanna take advantage of the name recognition, but then proceed to stomp all over the very thing that built that name recognition?...
 
So strange reading some of these comments about characters, character creations, wokeness ,dei and everything else. If you need video games to justify your manliness then you have a problem.


The real problem is that you come up with such a weird take. "justify your manliness" What does that even mean? That's another bizarre concept from the woke neo-language. Flee from that.

As for bad writing, that's the DNA of the woke, so yes, they go hand in hand.

And no, DEI has not been around since forever. In the entertainment industry, this bullshit started scarcely 10 years ago and it will vanish in 5-10 years, after provoking thousands of layoffs and billions in net losses for companies.
 
Top Bottom